Theory and Structure of the Automatic Relay Computer E.T.L. Mark II (INSCRIBED)

First Edition. [2], viii, [2], [10 plates], [1]-214 pages. 7 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches. 4to. Original blue cloth with white titling on spine and front panel. Minor bumps to corners and wear to the extremities. Errata sheet tipped in on rear pastedown. INSCRIBED by author Komamiya "to Mr. Albert E. Slade with best wishes from the writer" on the front flyleaf. No 556 in the Researches of the Electrotechnical Laboratory (Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Japan). Cloth. "This was the first Japanese book published in English concerning an electromechanical digital computer built in Japan. The relay-based ETL-Mark 2, Japan's first programmable computer, was designed and built at the Electrotechnical Laboratory of the Ministry of Industrial Science and Technology. 'The ETL-Mark-2 was built in 1955, using a huge number of relays. It was not a stored-program computer.Programs for the ETL-Mark-2 were punched onto paper tape, which was read and executed instruction by instruction. To obtain a program loop, both ends of the tape were pasted together. The ETL-Mark-2 was basically a floating point machine, but additions and subtractions could be done using fixed-point arithmetic. In those days, vacuum tubes were not very reliable, and transistors had not been yet put to any practical use. Therefore, the use of relays was an obvious choice. After completion, the ETL-Mark-2 was used for a period of ten years as a stable, programmable computer' (Okoma 2000, 420). The ETL-Mark-2 had been preceded by the ETL-Mark-1, a prototype machine constructed in 1952 and used only for tests and experiments." Origins of Cyberspace 637 Uncommon inscribed.…